The Spirit Kings Raid Encounter Preview
The Spirit Kings is the fourth boss of the Mogu'shan Vaults encounter.

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion

Mogu'shan Vaults
The mogu, proud of their supremacy, kept lengthy records of their accomplishments within a great complex of vaults. Guarded by ferocious magical beings, these sacred chambers have remained silent since the mogu's departure.

Meng Sharpfang - When the players defeat the Mad King, he remains in battle in a weakened state and only uses his Maddening Shout ability.

Maddening Shout - The Maddening Shout of Meng Sharpfang causes all enemies to go mad, inflicting 10,000 Shadow damage every 3 sec. and causing all enemies to hate each other. Players regain their sanity after taking 10,000 damage from another player.

The Mad King retains Maddening Shout after being defeated.

Crazed - The Mad King becomes more insane every 0.5 sec. Crazed increases the Mad King's Physical damage dealt by a percentage equal to twice his current Insanity. When the Mad King reaches 100 Insanity, he switches personalities to Cowardice.

Cowardice - The Mad King becomes more insane every 0.5 sec. Cowardice causes the Mad King to reflect damage equal to 50% of his current Insanity. When the Mad King reaches 100 Insanity, he switches personalities to Crazed.

Delirious - The Mad King enrages, doubling the rate he gains insanity.

Qiang Steelskin - When the players defeat the Warlord King, he remains in battle in a weakened state and only uses his Flanking Orders ability.

Flanking Orders - The Warlord King orders a flank, calling in a wave of Mogu attackers. These Flanking Mogu cast Overhand Strike, inflicting 100,000 Physical damage to enemies in front of them within 0 yards. The Warlord King retains Flanking Orders after being defeated.

Massive Attacks - No single man or woman can stand against the brutal attacks of the Warlord King. His Massive Attacks inflict 900,000 Physical damage, split among all enemies hit.

Annihilate - Qiang focuses on Annihilating his enemies in front of him, inflicting 300,000 damage to enemies within 0 yards.

Impervious Shield - The Warlord King uses his Impervious Shield, gaining immunity to all attacks and spells and increasing his attack speed by 200% for 10 sec.

Sebotai Swiftfoot - When the players defeat the Bandit King, he remains in battle in a weakened state and only uses his Pillage ability.

Pillage - The Bandit King charges a random player and Pillages them, stealing all of the target's posessions. The Pillaged effect reduces the player's damage and healing done by 50% and reduces their armor by 50%. The Bandit King retains Pillage after being defeated.

Volley - Sebotai launches three Volleys in quick succession. The first inflicts 50,000 Physical damage to enemies in a large cone in front of the caster, then 75,000 Physical damage in a medium cone, and finally 100,000 Physical damage in a small cone.

Rain of Arrows - The Bandit King fires a Rain of Arrows at the location of a random player, inflicting Pinned Down on all targets within the 8 yard area. Pinned Down inflicts 10,000 Physical damage every 1 sec. until another player removes the arrow from the victim.

Sleight of Hand - Damaging attacks against the Bandit King cause the attacker to suffer being Robbed Blind. The effect reduces damage and healing done by 50% and reduces armor by 50%. The Bandit King becomes vulnerable to Stun effects while using Sleight of Hand.

Robbed Blind - Robbed Blind reduces the target's damage and healing done by 50% and reduces their armor by 50%.

Zian of the Endless Shadow - When the players defeat the Sorcerer King, he remains in battle in a weakened state and only uses his Undying Shadows ability.

Undying Shadows - The Sorcerer King creates an Undying Shadow at the location of a random player. The Undying Shadow inflicts 15,000 Shadow damage every 1 sec to players within 10 yards until destroyed. The Sorcerer King retains Undying Shadows after being defeated.

Undying Shadow - The Undying Shadow inflicts 15,000 Shadow damage every 1 sec to players within 10 yards until destroyed. An Undying Shadow fixates on the closest nearby player when the Sorcerer King summons it. After the Undying Shadow dies it starts to reform itself, creating Coalescing Shadows. After 30 seconds the Undying Shadow fully coalesces and reforms.

Shadow Blast - The Sorcerer King launches a Shadow Blast at the location of a random player. The Shadow Blast inflicts 70,000 Shadow damage upon impact to players within 8 yards of the targeted location.

Charged Shadows - The Sorcerer King blasts a random player with Charged Shadows, inflicting 85,000 Shadow damage to the target then chaining to further targets within 8 yards of each other.

Shield of Darkness - The Sorceror King protects himself with a Shield of Darkness. The Shield inflicts 200,000 Shadow damage to all enemies whenever a damaging ability lands on the Sorceror King.

The Lorewalker Stories
In Mists of Pandaria there are several extra lore related achievements to go with the regular zone exploration achievements.

Once you have found all of the objects for an achievement, Lorewalker Cho will send you mail that asks you to meet him at the Seat of Knowledge. Once there he will narrate a small story that gives you some more information about Pandaria lore.

Starting with the next Mists of Pandaria beta build, we plan to enable the use of UI addons. So whether you’re a savvy addon author or the most discriminating player, there’s no time like the present to start planning out your perfect UI.

Addon authors should also make sure to check out prominent addon sites such as WoWInterface and Curse for a chance to apply for a Mist of Pandaria beta key. These sites have recently been given a lot of beta keys to distribute specifically to active addon authors. We likewise strongly encourage authors who have access to the beta to start testing out and fine-tuning their addon updates in the beta as soon as possible.

If you use an addon and start seeing errors, try downloading the most recent version of it. If you are still having errors, you may need to turn off the addon until it has been updated.

Raid Testing Schedule - June 28
Check back tomorrow afternoon for streams of the raid testing!

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

On Thursday, June 28, we'll be testing two encounters.

Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below for all Beta Test Realms, regardless of suggested geographical region.

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a beta environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session or cancel it entirely, due to bugs, builds, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Lack of New ContentWhere has all of the updates gone. I can't remember the last time anything was added to this game. I know blizard is busy and blah blah, but nothing?? really? where does that 15 bucks a month go. I know most of you will say "Just quit" and I probably will, but I miss enjoying the game. The raids are easy and the content is old.
We're working on the next expansion. We understand that people want new content and are hungry for it, but we have to also be able to recognize when we need to put our efforts into the next expansion rather than trying to divide up our focus too much.

I'm sure many of those that are in the beta will say that it's come a long long way. We're making great progress and are looking forward to getting the expansion out to everyone as soon as we possibly can.

There is still a lot to do in the game that perhaps you've never taken the time to do in the past. I acknowledge that doesn't make-up to many people the lack of new shiny things to do, but we're hoping we'll make the wait worthwhile for you.

We've been running summer challenges as well that we hope inspire people to go back to see older content again or perhaps even for the first time.

There's a lot to do in World of Warcraft. The limitations often are self-imposed, such as if you don't like PvP or don't like Raiding or Achievements. Many people are spending their time with Transmogrification right now as well.

I'm sure there are many others who could give you some great ideas of things you could try.

Why is WoW Never Balanced?Balance! You mean you guys actually balance this game, that's the first I heard of this. Right now we will hear how you are trying to balance the new expansion. I will bet my life on it that the monks and the new cuddly utterly hateable pandas will be either so weak or way over powered. Your developers never seem to get it right when it comes to balance.
Let's get one thing straight here. World of Warcraft (and all MMOs) are in a constant state of being balanced and tweaked. As more content or more game changes are added, so too must additional balancing be done. There is no such thing as a "finished" MMO. That is the nature of them. Balance, is an ongoing work. Also, what you may think is "right" may not be either. It's pretty easy to sit on the other side of the fence and say, "Get it right!" But there are so many variables at play that it's never that simple.

Also, it seems there are several discussions going on here. My comments have been directed at Heroic Dungeons and dungeons in general. I wasn't commenting on Dragon Soul.

In regard to Dragon Soul: I work on a global community report each week in which every week I see a mix of people that are upset about the buff, and those that are thankful for the buff so that they can progress. It's not a black and white issue. We did something similar in Wrath of the Lich King and we changed it again for Dragon Soul. Who knows what we'll do in future raids.

Yes, people can experience the Raid with the Raid Finder, but that doesn't mean their guild isn't interested in accomplishing the Raid together either. I think there is also an assumption that "everyone has seen it/done it" and that's not exactly true either.

As to whether or not we will "nerf" Challenge Modes, I couldn't say. I can say we will balance the dungeons that they occur in. But they are intended to be very challenging for organized groups. There is no Challenge Mode Finder by which you can make a new group and go in with strangers.

I see a lot of people upset about how this hurts their own experiences. How by making it too easy, you're getting people who may not fully understand the mechanics of some of the encounters or may not play at the top of their game. On the flip side, if only a small portion of people can get through that content, it gives you a very very limited pool of folks to be able to play with.

Again, we're not in a black and white situation here.

That all said, /broken record on-

We are always open to constructive feedback on how you think the system could work better. No one on our side has packed up a suitcase and walked out of the studio because their work is "done". We have a large team of folks who have been working their tails off to get the next expansion ready and out to you. They have been reading over the forums, listening to the community team, reading outside the forums, and still putting in their time to work on a variety of thoughts and ideas whether they came from without or within.

Will things potentially be "out of balance" with the release of Mists of Pandaria? It's possible. Beta can only tell us so much. Even with such a large pool of people taking part, there is always a difference when it comes to the live environment. The developers do the best they can to make sure the choices they make are for the betterment of the game.

Back to the topic at hand, we're back to the simplicity of the original statement I made-- Challenging is different for everyone.

I would also caution people to avoid these statements, "If only Blizzard had had their eyes open and brains engaged." This is not thoughtful or helpful in any way shape or form, nor is it constructive. If the developers don't agree with your ideas, that does not mean they don't have their "eyes or brains engaged".

A little experience that i had on my paladin....
I'm glad you had a great experience. I do think people are mistaking balancing for "casuals" with just providing balance in general. When we balance, we're not going, "hey this guy can't get through the dungeon, we need to nerf that". We're looking at, "hey a lot of people are getting stuck right here. Why is that?" Sometimes, there's just a rough spot that we need to smooth out. That's simply it. Challenging does not mean we want people banging their heads on their desks. It means, we want them to feel that there is a challenge that they can rise to and have a chance of overcoming if they work at it. Again, it's back to the difference between frustrating (I give up) and challenging (let's go at it again). (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Diablo 3: A Different AngleMalu05 shows us some Diablo 3 art from another perspective!